New Korean manager Jurgen Klinsmann arrives in Seoul

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New Korean manager Jurgen Klinsmann arrives in Seoul

Korean national football team manager Jurgen Klinsmann speaks to reporters following his arrival at Incheon International Airport in Incheon on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Korean national football team manager Jurgen Klinsmann speaks to reporters following his arrival at Incheon International Airport in Incheon on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

 
Korean national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann says his first objective at the helm of the Taeguk Warriors is to win the AFC Asian Cup.
 
Klinsmann arrived in Korea early on Wednesday morning after being appointed as Korea’s new manager last week.  
 
“I am very proud and very privileged to have this opportunity to come to Korea and to work for the national team and to hopefully have success, and that’s what I am here,” Klinsmann said during an interview at Incheon International Airport in Incheon following his arrival.
 
This is not his first time in Korea. Klinsmann came to Korea as a player in the 1998 Seoul Olympics and in the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, before returning to watch his son play in the U-20 World Cup in 2017.  
 
“I had many different experiences with South Korea and the people, and when this opportunity came up, we had the talk," Klinsmann said. "I was very excited because it is a very good team and a wonderful country,” Klinsmann said. “I am really looking forward to learning a lot from the people here.
 
“I hope that the team can learn a lot from me and my group of people.”
 
Klinsmann will lead Korea through the 2026 FIFA World Cup.  
 
The German manager was one of the most successful players of his generation. He spent his prime years in the 1980s at Bundesliga club VFB Stuttgart, where he scored 79 goals in 156 games. He moved to Tottenham Hotspur in the early 1990s and was one of the first big international signings to join the Premier League.
 
He was also a key player in the German national team as he helped his side win the 1990 World Cup. After retirement, he took charge of the national team and finished third in the 2006 World Cup.  
 
His most successful spell as a manger was when he managed the United States from 2011 to 2014, during which he won the 2013 Concacaf Gold Cup and led his side to the round of 16 in the 2014 World Cup.  
 
The first task for Klinsmann as the Taeguk Warriors’ manager is to win the Asian Cup, which is set to take place in next January in Qatar. The last time Korea won the competition was in 1960.
 
“I think the goal has to be winning the Asian Cup,” he said. “Because you proved in Qatar that you can beat big nations. You beat Portugal and four years ago, you beat Germany.”  
 
Before he was appointed as the new manager, Klinsmann worked as a pundit and led the Technical Study Group at the 2022 World Cup, during which he watched and analyzed all four of Korea's games.
 
Klinsmann’s debut game will be a friendly match against Colombia in Ulsan on March 24. 
 
Since the game is happening during the FIFA international break, Klinsmann can test out the best possible XI with the likes of Son Heung-min and Kim Min-jae, who are based in Europe.
 
That debut match will be followed by a friendly against Uruguay, who are coming to Seoul on March 28.
 
Uruguayan veterans Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani are not included in the squad, but key players like Federico Valverde of Real Madrid and Darwin Nunez of Liverpool are in the roster.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]
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